A huge 93 per cent of babies born in Jamaica in the first week of January, 2007 were named at registration, as the Registrar General’s Department (RGD) began a new thrust to reduce the high incidence of nameless babies.

But the celebrations were marred by stark evidence of the difficulty faced by officials after reports showed that three babies remained nameless because their mothers had abandoned them in hospital.

Of 899 babies born in 23 hospitals and birthing centres between January 1 and 7 – the first week of the RGD initiative – 833 were named at registration within days of birth, Chief Executive Officer, Dr Patricia Holness said yesterday.

Holness, unable to mask her joy at the big success achieved so soon, noted another major achievement – that 368 unmarried fathers added their particulars to the record of their newborns at the same time as the mothers.

“We are obviously overwhelmed by this response, because we are really at the beginning of a programme which will continue for as long as necessary,” Holness told the Observer.

The other 531 married fathers also added their particular’s to the children’s record.

The RGD initiative was triggered by a birth certificate crisis which has been building over many years but reached a crescendo last year when over 18,000 children were found to be without names on their birth records. The problem was usually discovered when it was time for them to enter school, RGD officials said.

On New Year’s Day, Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller was at the Victoria Jubilee Hospital to kick off the new initiative to have all Jamaican babies named at birth. To encourage parents, the RGD is offering the first copy of the birth certificate free of cost.

Of the 833 babies registered, the remaining 66 babies were not named at birth because of a variety of reasons, including the absence of many fathers who were overseas. However, the number also included three whose mothers slipped quietly out of hospital after giving birth, leaving their offspring behind.

“Nurses were feeding them and on return to the hospital bed found that the mothers had disappeared,” Holness said.